Women rabbis and Torah scholars

Depiction of Deborah serving as judge

The biblical figure of Deborah the prophetess is described as serving as a judge.[9][10] According to some traditional rabbinic sources, Deborah's judiciary role primarily concerned religious law. Thus, according to this view, Deborah was Judaism's first female religious legal authority, equivalent to the contemporary rabbinical role of posek (rabbinic decisor of Jewish Law). Other rabbinic sources understand the biblical story of Deborah that her role was only that of a national leader and not of a legal authority.[11] Alternatively, other Rabbinic authorities understand Deborah's role to be one that advised Jewish judges, but she herself did not render religious legal rulings.[12]

The Talmudic figure of Bruriah (2nd Century) is described as participating in Jewish legal debates, challenging the rabbis of the time.

The history of medieval Jewish women as either rabbis or Torah scholars is one with several examples. The daughters of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known as Rashi, living in France in the 11th-12th Century, are the subject of Jewish legends claiming that they possessed unusual Torah scholarship.[13] In the 13th Century, a Jewish woman in Italy named Paula Dei Mansi served as a scribe and scholar.[14] Also in Italy, during the 16th Century, lived a woman Torah scholar named Fioretta of Modena.[15]

The only instance of a medieval Jewish woman serving as rabbi is the case of Asenath Barzani of Iraq who is considered by some scholars as the first woman rabbi of Jewish history; additionally, she is the oldest recorded female Kurdish leader in history.[16]

In Eastern European Hasidic Judaism, during the early 19th-century, Hannah Rachel Verbermacher, also known as the Maiden of Ludmir, became the movement's only female Hasidic rebbe,[17] however, the role of rebbe relates to spiritual and communal leadership as opposed to the legal authority of "rabbi".

Other instances of Hasidic rebbetzins (wives of Hasidic rebbes) who "acted similar to" Hasidic rebbes include Malkah Twersky of the Trisk Hasidic dynasty (an offshoot of with the Chernobyl Hasidic dynasty) and Sarah Horowitz-Sternfeld (d. 1939), known as the Khentshiner Rebbetzin, based in Chęciny, Poland.[18][19]

Article from the San Francisco Chronicle on 19 October 1898, announcing Ray Frank as a "woman rabbi"

Rabbi Regina Jonas, the first ordained woman rabbi in modern times. Ordained in Germany in 1935, she was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.[20]

In the American West, during the 1890s, a young woman named Ray Frank assumed a religious leadership role, delivering sermons, giving public lectures and reading scripture. She was referred to as a woman rabbi in the American Jewish press, however, she appeared to have avoided claiming such a title.

The first formally ordained female rabbi in modern times was Regina Jonas, ordained in Germany in 1935.[20] Jonas was killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust and her existence was mostly unknown until the 1990s.

Beginning in the 1970s, this status quo gradually began to change, with women being ordained as rabbis within each Jewish denomination. The first such ordination of this period took place in 1972 when Sally Priesand became the first female rabbi in Reform Judaism.[21] Since then, Reform Judaism's Hebrew Union College has ordained hundreds of women rabbis.[22] The second denomination to ordain a woman rabbi was Reconstructionist Judaism with the 1974 ordination of Sandy Eisenberg Sasso.[23] Since then, over 100 Reconstructionist women rabbis have been ordained. This trend continued with Lynn Gottlieb becoming the first female rabbi in Jewish Renewal in 1981.[24] In 1985, Amy Eilberg became the first female rabbi in Conservative Judaism.[25] In 1999, Tamara Kolton became the first rabbi of any gender within Humanistic Judaism.[26] In 2009, Sara Hurwitz became the first Orthodox woman rabbi, however, the situation within Orthodoxy is still debated today (see below: Women rabbis § Orthodox Judaism).[8] Another notable event that same year was the 2009 ordination of Alysa Stanton who became the first African-American female rabbi.[27]

Since the 1970s, over 1,000 women rabbis have been ordained across all Jewish denominations:

• Reform Judaism - Over 700 women rabbis are associated with Reform and Progressive Judaism worldwide:
  • Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) - as of 2016, 699 (32%) of the association's 2,176 member rabbi were women.[28]
  • Progressive Judaism in Europe - as of 2006, the total number of women ordained at the Leo Baeck College was 30 (19%) out of all of the 158 ordinations completed at the institution since 1956.[29]
  • Israeli Council of Reform Rabbis (MARAM) - as of 2016, 18 (58%) of the 31 the association's rabbis officiating in congregations were women. Of the group's total membership at the time, 48 (48%) of 100 rabbis were women.[28]
• Conservative Judaism - Around 300 women rabbis are associated with Conservative Judaism worldwide:
  • Rabbinical Assembly (USA) - as of 2010, 273 (17%) of the 1,648 members of the Rabbinical Assembly were women.[30]
  • Conservative Judaism in Israel - as of 2016, 22 (14%) of the Israeli Masorati movement's 160 rabbi members were women.[28]
• Orthodox Judaism - Around 50 women rabbis are associated with Orthodox Judaism worldwide:
  • Yeshivat Maharat (USA) - from 2013 to 2020, the "Open Orthodox" Yeshivat Maharat ordained 42 women rabbis, however, the titles Rabbi, Rabba, Maharat, Rabbanit, and Darshan are used interchangeably by the program's graduates.[31]
  • Beit Midrash Har-El (Israel) - a new institution for Orthodox men and women has ordained 6 women rabbis of their total 13 graduates.[32]

Since its formation during the 19th century, the denomination of Reform Judaism allowed men and women to pray together in synagogues. This Jewish ritual decision was based on the egalitarian philosophy of the movement. Subsequently, in 1922, the topic of women as rabbis was discussed formally by the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR). In the end, the CCAR voted against the proposal.[33] The topic was raised again in the subsequent decades and in 1972, Sally Priesand became the first female Reform rabbi.[21]

In 1982, ten years after the movement's first ordination of a woman rabbi, Rabbi Stanley Dreyfus, a prominent Reform rabbi, presented a report to the CCAR, outlining the extent of acceptance of women rabbis. Dreyfus found that initially, many congregant were reluctant to accept a woman officiant at Jewish funerals, or to for her to provide rabbinic counselling, or to lead prayer services. However, notwithstanding these initial qualms, Dreyfus found that a decade after the movement's acceptance of the ordination of women rabbis, the Reform community, in general, had "fully accepted" the new reality.[34]

In the late 1970s, following the decision within the denomination of Reform Judaism to accept women rabbis, the debate extended to Conservative Judaism. In 1979, the Faculty Senate of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America adopted a motion recognising that the topic had caused severe division among Conservative rabbis, and that the movement would not accept women rabbis. The motion was passed 25 to 19. The resistance to women's ordination was couched in the context of Jewish Law, however, the JTS resolution contains political and social considerations as well.[35] During this same period, the Conservative movement appointed a special commission to study the issue of ordaining women as rabbis, The commission met between 1977 and 1978, and consisted of eleven men and three women.[36] In 1983, the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, voted, without accompanying opinion, to ordain women as rabbis and as cantors. In 1985, the status quo had formally changed with the movement's ordaination of Amy Eilberg, admitting her as a member in the Rabbinical Assembly. After this step, the Conservative movement proceeded to admit Rabbis Jan Caryl Kaufman and Beverly Magidson who had been ordained at Reform movement's Hebrew Union College.[30]

Following the changes adopted by the Reform and Conservative denominations in the 1970s and 1980s, the question of women rabbis within Orthodox Judaism also became subject to debate. Calls for Orthodox yeshivas to admit women as rabbinical students were initially met with total opposition. Rabbi Norman Lamm, one of the leaders of Modern Orthodoxy and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, opposed ordaining women, arguing it would negatively distrupt the Orthodox tradition.[37] Other Orthodox rabbis criticized the request as contrary to Jewish Law, viewing Orthodox Judaism as specifically prohibiting women from receiving ordination and serving as rabbis.[38]

This status quo was maintained until 2006, when Dina Najman was appointed to perform rabbinic functions for Kehilat Orach Eliezer in Manhattan, New York, using the title of "rosh kehilah," not "rabbi."[39] Najman was ordained by Rabbi Daniel Sperber.[40] In 2009, Rabbi Avi Weiss ordained Sara Hurwitz with the title "maharat" (an acronym of manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit Toranit, "authority of Jewish law and spirituality"[41]) as an alternate title to "rabbi".[42][43] Since Hurwitz's ordination, and Weiss' subsequent founding of Yeshivat Maharat as a formal institution to ordain Orthodox women,[1][2] the number of Orthodox women rabbis has grown; however, not all use the title of "rabbi" and instead use other variations such as "rabba", "rabbanit", maharat", and "darshanit".[8] [44][45][46]

Notwithstanding these developments, the subject is still a current debate within Orthodox Judaism and many major Orthodox institutions, including the Orthodox Union,[3] the Rabbinical Council of America, and Agudath Israel of America do not recognize women rabbis and deem the change as violating Jewish law,[47][48][4][5][49] thus restricting Orthodox women rabbinical candidates and graduates to a few select modern-Orthodox institutions. Countering the position of the Rabbinical Council of America, the International Rabbinic Fellowship, a collective of modern Orthodox rabbis, have affirmed a position to accept women in clerical roles and advocates for the phenomenon of women as rabbis to develop naturally among Orthodox Jews.[50]

The Orthodox Union, a central rabbinic organization of modern Orthodox Judaism has taken the position that it will not admit any synagogue as a new member organization if the synagogue employs women as clergy. However, four synagogues have been exempt from this ban as they are long-standing members of the Orthodox Union.[51]

In the 2010s, a few Israeli Orthodox institutions began ordaining women. Beit Midrash Har'el, a modern-Orthodox institution based in Jerusalem ordained a cohort Orthodox men and women.[52] Additionally, a pilot program for ordination for both Orthodox men and women was run by the Shalom Hartman Institute in partnership with HaMidrasha [53] at Oranim with the initial cohort ordained in 2016.[54][55][56][57] However, the Hartman Institute program has been described as a non-denominational ordination program.[58]

Alongside this debate, a third approach within Orthodoxy has developed. Some Orthodox institutions have accepted women in alternate roles relating to Jewish law such as halakhic advisors (Yoatzot),[59] court advocates (Toanot) and congregational advisors. Examples of this trend gaining acceptance include the efforts of Rabbi Aryeh Strikovski of Machanaim Yeshiva and Pardes Institute who collaborated with Rabbi Avraham Shapira, former Chief Rabbi of Israel, to initiate a program for training Orthodox women as halakhic Toanot ("advocates") in rabbinic courts. Since then, seventy Israeli women were trained as Toanot. In England, in 2012, Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the country's chief rabbi, appointed Lauren Levin as Britain's first Orthodox female halakhic adviser, at Finchley United Synagogue in London.[6] This distinction of women rabbis are ordained to rule on matters of Jewish law versus women as Torah scholars who may provide instruction in Jewish law is found in Jewish legal works.[60][61]

In Israel a growing number of Orthodox women are being trained as Yoetzet Halacha (halakhic advisers),[62] and the use of Toanot is not restricted to any one segment of Orthodoxy; In Israel they have worked with Haredi and Modern Orthodox Jews. Orthodox women may study the laws of family purity at the same level of detail that Orthodox males do at Nishmat, the Jerusalem Center for Advanced Jewish Study for Women. The purpose is for them to be able to act as halakhic advisors for other women, a role that traditionally was limited to male rabbis. This course of study is overseen by Rabbi Yaakov Varhaftig.[63]

Since the 2010s, the Israeli-based modern Orthodox institution Ohr Torah Stone began training and certifying Orthodox women as "Morat Hora’ah U’Manhigah Ruchanit" (or "Morat Hora’ah") as teachers who are authorized to provide direction in matters of Jewish law. It is a position that is not formally listed as rabbinical ordination, but may be understood as a role that overlaps with the role of "rabbi".[64][65][66] Without granting ordination, three other programs mirror the Rabbinate’s ordination requirements for men: Ein HaNetziv trains students as "Teachers of Halacha"; Lindenbaum in "Halachik leadership"; Matan as "Halachik Respondents